Publications

"Margery Amdur's mixed-media works and installations often incorporate materials such as paint chips, pompoms, paint-by-number patterns, intermingled with hand-cut frosted mylar suspended within layers of poured liquid resin that speak of the impossible separation of our culture view and the natural world. Amdur's elaborately layered works utilize ornament and pattern to reveal the constructed nature of the garden."

-Peter Frank

Artist Statement

My work continues to speak as both painting and sculpture. Thousands of miniature geometric foam formations are saturated, embellished with inks, dyes, pastel pigment, the finest black glitter, and powdered graphite, then sealed, and adhered to canvas. Bunching and gathering to create voluptuous undulations suggestive of coral reefs, rock formations, crystals and black lava form the canvases. Texture has become a primary language, influenced by dynamic other-worldy landscapes of Iceland and Australia. In an odd way, when viewed from above, both of these congested overwhelming seductive, breathtaking landscapes parallel overly populated, poorly planned, non-sustainable, built urban environments.

Process and paradox continue to be core issues in my work while the chemistry of materials continue to fuel and inspire. Fabrication is primarily low-tech, and hands-on. Digital renderings complicate yet enhance. In addition to the labor- intensive accumulation of forms, the overall intensity of the work is amplified by the addition and integration of a wide range of unusual mixed-media materials. Questions about passages of time, labor, urban renewal, and geometry within natural landscapes intersect, yet answers remain hidden.

A new generation of work has traced itself into existence. Prior to embellishing the sponges with exuberant color the re-purposed sponge tapestries are scanned on a large flat bed scanner and digital files are then brought into Photoshop to be drawn upon. Tracing with a pencil tool on a Wacom tablet while looking at the computer screen feels familiar and reminiscent of blind contour drawings. When done honestly the linear artifacts yield personal maps where observation and feeling are more important than logic.